OCR Text |
Show -Editorial Get guarantee before zone change to tomorrow night's public hearing . 3 Our county commissioners have said that a zone change now can be reversed in the future if the Estes Co should decide, after more study, that the Traverse Ridge development just won't work. But not everyone agrees that it is so easy to jump from one zone to another and then back again. By rezoning the Traverse Ridge property to rural residential, the county will be giving landowners rights they don't currently enjoy in a critical environment zone --rights that make the property more valuable. If Estes were to pull out and the county tried to change the zone back, it would be revoking those rights in a manner that could be considered discriminatory. After all, it's illegal for the county to give Estes more consideration than it gives any other developer. The case would probably end up in court, costing the taxpayers a bundle in legal fees. And the final decision could go either way. The chance of that happening is great enough that the f county cannot afford to rezone the Traverse Ridge property until it is certain that Estes Co. is willing to develop Traverse Ridge in the manner they have said they would. Before handing over this zoning change, the County Commission should have in hand several pieces of information in-formation that will ensure the development will be built as envisioned. That includes an environmental impact statement and a preliminary plan of the development. With that information in hand, Estes Co. can make a decision on whether to develop the property or not, and the county can decide if it wants to see the property developed. To go ahead with the zone change for Traverse Ridge tomorrow night without this information in hand is not in the best interests of the residents of Utah County. Tomorrow evening the Utah County Commission will make a major decision regarding the future of the Traverse Ridge area and a proposed 5,000 acre development that the Arizona-based Estes Company would like to put there. To be sure, the county officials have argued that the public hearing to change the zoning in the Traverse Ridge area from a critical environment zone to a rural residential zone is just one step in the process of approving ap-proving or disapproving the Traverse Ridge development. develop-ment. To a degree, they are correct. The proposed development, which would eventually become a new city with a larger population than that of several existing local communities, will still have to go through a lot of red tape, and get more county approvals, before builders can start moving any earth. And this developer has a lot of points in its favor. Estes Co. has put together similar developments in other states that are feasible from both an economic and ecological standpoint, and their pjans for Traverse Ridge are impressive to say the least. They have envisioned a development that will include open land for wildlife, housing for a wide variety of income levels, recreation areas such as golf courses, special sites reserved for commercial development, land for schools and the industry required to attract and employ the residents of the development. The problem is they want the zoning changed before the detailed plans are developed and the studies are done to show that the Traverse Ridge development is feasible and practical. However, a zone change is a major step that will have an impact on the land involved, not to mention the county, whether Estes Co. goes through with the development or not. And that adds a different dimension |